Corona and Koha
Another Sinhala and Tamil New Year has dawned. The koha is making plaintive mating calls as if to mock the hapless humans who are imprisoned in their own homes.
Nature has her own way of humbling the troublesome bipeds who are full of themselves and wreak destruction upon this planet. A highly contagious micro-organism has stopped them in their tracks, and made them engage in some soul searching. Humans are feeling as vulnerable as poor pangolins, hunted and devoured. They had a giant step with a manned mission to the moon, decades ago, but, today, they cannot even step out their homes, as someone has rightly said.
Ironically, everybody is worried about ‘corona’, these days, and Sri Lankans are cursing it for having made their lives miserable and, most of all, spoilt the traditional New Year celebrations, which are usually held on a grand scale. It is the aforesaid dreadful virus, resembling a wreath or a crown, that has made ‘corona’ a household word, but, interestingly, corona also means the gaseous envelope of the sun, whose transition from the House of Pisces to the House of Aries is celebrated, today.
The world is struggling to beat coronavirus, which continues to spread, at an alarming rate, and carries off many lives, especially, in the developed countries. Desperate efforts being made by all nations to flatten the curve has made the global economy fall flat on its face. The World Bank has warned of a recession; Sri Lanka is one of the countries in the high risk group, we are told. So, the need for a national effort to eliminate Covid-19 as soon as possible and overcome the attendant socio-economic problems cannot be overemphasised. But the current crisis is not without a bright side.
The traditional New Year is a season of merrymaking and extravagance. People usually splurge all their money on clothes, food and alcohol as it there were no tomorrow. Winding queues form near liquor outlets for days, and supermarket shelves are stripped bare ahead of the New Year. People spend in haste, and repent at leisure. When festivities are over and the sobering reality dawns, they curse everyone but themselves for their pecuniary woes. Pawn brokers laugh all the way to the bank.
Lockdowns, coupled with a strictly enforced curfew, have made avurudda a low-key affair, this year; the spirit of the event nevertheless remains undiminished, we believe. Cooped up as they may be, members of most families are together and can celebrate the New Year indoors, undisturbed.
We wish our readers a very happy New Year!
Another Sinhala and Tamil New Year has dawned. The koha is making plaintive mating calls as if to mock the hapless humans who are imprisoned in their own homes.
Nature has her own way of humbling the troublesome bipeds who are full of themselves and wreak destruction upon this planet. A highly contagious micro-organism has stopped them in their tracks, and made them engage in some soul searching. Humans are feeling as vulnerable as poor pangolins, hunted and devoured. They had a giant step with a manned mission to the moon, decades ago, but, today, they cannot even step out their homes, as someone has rightly said.
Ironically, everybody is worried about ‘corona’, these days, and Sri Lankans are cursing it for having made their lives miserable and, most of all, spoilt the traditional New Year celebrations, which are usually held on a grand scale. It is the aforesaid dreadful virus, resembling a wreath or a crown, that has made ‘corona’ a household word, but, interestingly, corona also means the gaseous envelope of the sun, whose transition from the House of Pisces to the House of Aries is celebrated, today.
The world is struggling to beat coronavirus, which continues to spread, at an alarming rate, and carries off many lives, especially, in the developed countries. Desperate efforts being made by all nations to flatten the curve has made the global economy fall flat on its face. The World Bank has warned of a recession; Sri Lanka is one of the countries in the high risk group, we are told. So, the need for a national effort to eliminate Covid-19 as soon as possible and overcome the attendant socio-economic problems cannot be overemphasised. But the current crisis is not without a bright side.
The traditional New Year is a season of merrymaking and extravagance. People usually splurge all their money on clothes, food and alcohol as it there were no tomorrow. Winding queues form near liquor outlets for days, and supermarket shelves are stripped bare ahead of the New Year. People spend in haste, and repent at leisure. When festivities are over and the sobering reality dawns, they curse everyone but themselves for their pecuniary woes. Pawn brokers laugh all the way to the bank.
Lockdowns, coupled with a strictly enforced curfew, have made avurudda a low-key affair, this year; the spirit of the event nevertheless remains undiminished, we believe. Cooped up as they may be, members of most families are together and can celebrate the New Year indoors, undisturbed.
We wish our readers a very happy New Year!
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